Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States of America.
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 May 19;16(5):e0251799. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251799. eCollection 2021.
Public parks serve an important societal function as recreational spaces for diverse communities of people, with well documented physical and mental health benefits. As such, parks may be crucial for how people have handled effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the increasingly limited recreational opportunities, widespread financial uncertainty, and consequent heightened anxiety. Despite the documented benefits of parks, however, many states have instituted park shutdown orders due to fears that public parks could facilitate SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Here we use geotagged social media data from state, county, and local parks throughout New Jersey to examine whether park visitation increased when the COVID-19 pandemic began and whether park shutdown orders were effective at deterring park usage. We compare park usage during four discrete stages of spring 2020: (1) before the pandemic began, (2) during the beginning of the pandemic, (3) during the New Jersey governor's state-wide park shutdown order, and (4) following the lifting of the shutdown. We find that park visitation increased by 63.4% with the onset of the pandemic. The subsequent park shutdown order caused visitation in closed parks to decline by 76.1% while parks that remained open continued to experience elevated visitation levels. Visitation then returned to elevated pre-shutdown levels when closed parks were allowed to reopen. Altogether, our results indicate that parks continue to provide crucial services to society, particularly in stressful times when opportunities for recreation are limited. Furthermore, our results suggest that policies targeting human behavior can be effective and are largely reversible. As such, we should continue to invest in public parks and to explore the role of parks in managing public health and psychological well-being.
公共公园作为为不同人群提供娱乐空间的重要社会功能，具有有据可查的身心健康益处。因此，公园对于人们应对 COVID-19 大流行的影响可能至关重要，尤其是日益有限的娱乐机会、广泛的财务不确定性以及随之而来的高度焦虑。然而，尽管公园有记录在案的好处，但许多州还是出于担心公共公园可能会促进 SARS-CoV-2 传播的原因，颁布了公园关闭令。在这里，我们使用来自新泽西州各地的州、县和地方公园的地理标记社交媒体数据，研究 COVID-19 大流行开始时公园游客是否增加，以及公园关闭令是否有效阻止了公园的使用。我们比较了 2020 年春季四个不同阶段的公园使用情况：(1) 大流行开始之前，(2) 大流行开始时，(3) 新泽西州州长全州公园关闭令期间，以及(4) 关闭令解除后。我们发现，随着大流行的开始，公园游客增加了 63.4%。随后的公园关闭令导致关闭公园的游客减少了 76.1%，而开放的公园继续保持较高的游客水平。当关闭的公园被允许重新开放时，游客人数又恢复到关闭前的高水平。总的来说，我们的结果表明，公园继续为社会提供至关重要的服务，尤其是在娱乐机会有限的紧张时期。此外，我们的结果表明，针对人类行为的政策可以是有效的，并且在很大程度上是可逆的。因此，我们应该继续投资于公共公园，并探索公园在管理公共卫生和心理健康方面的作用。
